Hi, all, just listened to a wonderful story about the Woody Guthrie Traveling Exhibit, archived on NPR. The exhibit is at the Smithsonian right now and will travel until 2001, when it will wind up back in Oklahoma.

The NPR audio file includes a clip of a 1940 interview of Woody talking about the people who fled the dustbowl to California and him singing a bit of If Ya Ain't Got the Do Re Mi; there were also some other clips of him singing.

The exhibit follows his life from birth to death and includes photos, his banjo and mandolin, and other memorabilia. There is also a tribute from young musicians, such as Ani DeFranco, who have felt his influence.

Well worth the listen, and visit if you are close to wherever it goes.

Jacob, I found teh Smithsonian site which lists where it will be, but it is given by region and is extensive, so if you go to this page, then you can click on their map & it will list places which have booked it. It goes through 2002, so some bookings haven't been made, yet. I've included more below, but first this from the official website for the Woody Guthrie Free Folk Festival:

Pete Seeger, June 1967:When Woody Guthrie was singing hillbilly songs on a little Los Angeles radio station in the late 1930s, he used to mail out a small mimeographed songbook to listeners who wanted the words to his songs, On the bottom of one page appeared the following: "This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do." W.G.

THIS IS FROM THE NOTES FOR THE EXHIBITION:

One single life can sometimes be a mirror for the lives of many, for the soul of a nation. This life is Woody Guthrie's. This nation is America in his time.

- from the exhibition script

This Land is Your Land explores the life and work of one of America's greatest folk heroes, Woody Guthrie. Poet, singer, artist, and humorist, Woodrow Wilson Guthrie fled Dust-Bowl poverty to commence a life of music and adventure that never lost ties to the less-advantaged in American society. His deep empathy for the common man infused his music with purpose and sparked a life-long dedication to social activism. Woody was a traveling folklorist, collecting cowboy songs, mountain ballads, religious music, blues, and work chants and then blending these styles into more than 1,000 original songs, each revealing an aspect of the American soul.

Woody's times were ripe for songs of the people. His prodigious output spanned only 17 years, during which he churned out poems, two novels, and hundreds of letters, essays, and newspaper columns, in addition to the innumerable songs. He drew and painted prolifically and recorded hundreds of songs, both traditional tunes and his own compositions. He sang about love, war, children at play, natural disasters, unionism, and fascism. Literary critics have called him the Walt Whitman of the 20th century--others say he was the workingman's James Joyce. Woody Guthrie's "ballads" echo in the music of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and many of today's emerging songwriters, such as Billy Bragg, continue to look to his work. As folk artist and diarist, his immense œuvre of drawings and autobiographical musings illustrate the world as he saw it.

For the first time, Guthrie's personal archive of drawings, song lyrics, notebooks, manuscripts, diaries, and photographs will be available to the public. SITES and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, in collaboration with Nora Guthrie, executive director of the Woody Guthrie Archives, has created an exhibition that draws from rarely seen objects, illustrations, film footage, and unreleased performances to reveal a complex man who was at once poet, musician, protester, idealist, itinerant hobo, and folk legend.

At the moment only DC, New York, Tacoma, and LA are booked, but there are only a couple of open slots. The DC exhibit runs at the Am.Hist. Museum from May til September...good deal for all the DC bunch.

Thanks for the info kat.....doesn't look good for the home team though.

Thanks kat, this is very timely for me as right now I am half way through 'Woody Guthrie, A Life by Joe Klein My mind has been wrapped around thinking what Woody's life must have been like. I was glad to find this thread.

Check out the webpage of the Woody Guthrie Foundation - www.woodyguthrie.org . If you then click on Foundation and Archive Projects you will find a description and schedule of the tour.

Having seen the exhibit in NYC I urge everyone to go. The films that were shown as part of the exhibit are astounding. Reading and hearing about Woody's fight with Huntington's Chorea cannot prepare you for the impact of seeing film footage of Woody in his later days as his family visited him in the hospital. This footage has never been shown in public before. I attended an opening and Arlo was there to talk about it. He said that although the footage may be hard to watch, to him and his family they were having a great day with their father.

At the NYC exhibit they also had the original copy of Woody's "This Land is Your Land". Scribbled on notebook paper, it was inspiring to see this "holy grail" of folk music.

I really urge EVERYONE to check out the exhibit if it travels near you. I hope that someday it will find a permanent home.

Bonnie, that's an excellent book. I read it years ago, and will probably take a second pass at it before too long. Notwithstanding Klein's troubles with the "anonymously" written Primary Colors, he's a damn good writer, with a lot of insight.

Briefly, this is an AMAZING exhibit. Saw it in NYC. Spent a few hours. Left with an understanding of how huge a figure he was. How he not only composed activist material but his way of living was evidence of his personal commitment. A sample of Woody's writing bears this thought: MUSIC IS JUST A HANDY WAY OF TELLING WHATS ON YOUR MIND---NO MIND--NO MUSIC.

I found the following quote of Woody's that was on a pamphlet I saved from the exhibit. It's worth sharing.

"I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter how hard it's run you down, and rolled over you, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built; I am out to sing the songs that will make you take pride in yourself and in your work." --Woody Guthrie.

It's my habit to hold on to wisdom and look back on it as often as is needed. Hope you got something out of it. The exhibit is loaded with this elegence.

It sure is a good read Whistle Stop. Klein has some good insights into Woody's intriguing character. Rick lent me the book and he also lent me 'American Folksong Woody Guthrie' published in 1961 which has the type written story 'My Life' written by Woody. It also has many cartoons and illustrations Woody drew.

Nathan in Texas, after I finish reading Klein's book I will look for 'Bound for Glory'. It will be interesting to compare the two books.

"Bound for Glory" is very interesting, a great long-spun yarn. Joe Klein says in passing that Woody "stretched the truth a lot" in the book, in the Woody storytelling way. But Klein doesnt' go any further. No guide as to where the truth ends and the stretches begin.

Speaking of ignoring what Woody stood for in ideas and in politics, it was quite a a shock to me when I found out that there was a last verse of "This Land" that no one ever sang -- and it was a very strong verse, too. "On the other side it didn't say nothing -- that side was made for you and me."

On a tape I have which Art Thieme sent me, of him with Jim Craig and Fred Holstein, from July 1984, a tribute to Woody Show for his birthday, I am pretty sure I've heard them do that verse. I'll check it for sure.

I don't claim to know Woody intimately but I think he would take a dim view of his cannonization. He was interested in singing for picket lines, farm workers, labor rallies, and people he met in his travels. Don't think he would hang out with too many in the popular folkie set these days. He didn't care much for popular music of his day.

"I hate s song that makes a man feel low...."

Just from what I remember of him.

He was a guy who always told it like it is. Short, to the point and no BS. I was a kid then and he was very kind to me. He had a lot of compassion for people despite his erratic lifestyle which had a lot to do with the knowledge that he had of himself with Huntingtons. But he was all heart.

He was IMHO one of the best of all singer/songwriters everywhere and a great American folk "poet". I use the term loosely because he wrote lyrics which is different than straight poetry.

The important part of his writing which is the crux of every great art form is his economy, clarity and simplicity and specificity. No attempt to be profound, preachy or lapse into cliches or platitudes. And he played simply. He never tried to impress folks with his "musicality". And yet he assimilated the best of American rural country music and made it his own.

In this, he was in the best tradition of American folk music in my view.

Frank, I'd agree that Woody would not enjoy the personal/sentimental bent of current folk. But where would Woody hang out today? Very little is happening in the way of labor struggles, few picket lines, and those generally cut-and-dried. Nor are there any significant campaigns for basic social reforms. Today, Woody would seem sort of like a man without an era. To my notion.

You have to remember that Woody was a TOPICAL songwriter. The Archives have thousands of songs that Woody wrote on all types of topics. The labor movement may have been the defining social cause of his day, but he would have been singing about many things today. IF Huntington's hadn't robbed him of his life, I am sure he would have been singing out loud during the civil rights movement, perhaps Vietnam, ecology, etc., etc., etc.

As Woody said - there will always be folk music because there are lots of folks. To paraphrase, he would have always found a topic to sing about.

P.S. - The exhibit does flesh out the depth of Woody's material. The exhibit does show the range of topics that Woody commented on.

Canoer's comments are probably reflect the way the general public recognizes Woody - labor songs and This Land. We could probably start a long debate on whether there are social causes worth fighting for these days. In my opinion basic social reform has made changes since Woody's day but we are all growing fat and lazy and missing the battles that still need to be fought. We need Woody Guthrie's to point out these issues instead of today's singer-songwhiners complaining of how they can't get laid (or whatever they are singing about).

If you have a chance, and you can find it, pick up the book "Woody Sez" and you will see first hand how this man's mind worked. Incredible.